WASHINGTON -- A top House Republican has requested details on the use of private emails by some of President Donald Trump's closest advisers.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina conservative who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the top Democrat on that panel, Rep. Elijah Cummings, cited a recent Politico report that Jared Kushner set up a private email account after the election to conduct work-related business.
Kushner's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, on Sunday confirmed Kushner's use of a personal email in the first few months of the administration.
The New York Times reported Monday that at least six of Trump's closest advisers, including Kushner, Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, used private email to discuss White House matters. Bannon and Priebus no longer work at the White House.
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During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly criticized Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for setting up a private email server while she was secretary of state, a decision that prompted an FBI investigation that shadowed her for much of the campaign.
"We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office," Trump said last year. His campaign rallies often boiled over with chants of "Lock her up!"
The FBI closed its investigation into Clinton's handling of classified information and recommended no charges. But even after becoming president, Trump has prodded the Justice Department to reinvestigate.
In letters Monday to the White House general counsel and the State Department, Gowdy and Cummings said they want details on all employees.
"With numerous public revelations of senior executive branch employees deliberately trying to circumvent these laws by using personal, private, or alias email addresses to conduct official government business, the committee has aimed to use its oversight and investigative resources to prevent and deter misuse of private forms of written communication," the lawmakers wrote.
White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders had no immediate comment Tuesday on the request by Gowdy and Cummings.
"All White House personnel have been instructed to use official email to conduct all government-related work," she said. "They are further instructed that if they receive work-related communication on personal accounts, they should be forwarded to official email accounts."
Sanders told reporters Monday that the use of private email accounts by staff members was, "to my knowledge, very limited."
"White House counsel has instructed all White House staff to use their government email for official business, and only use that email," she said, adding that "we get instructed on this one pretty regularly."
Cummings asked the White House to make sure that none of Kushner's emails are deleted.
"Before requesting copies or calling for the public release of all official emails you sent or received on your personal email account," Cummings wrote, "I first request that you preserve all official records and copies of records in your custody or control and that you provide the information requested below."
"Your actions in response to the preservation request and the information you provide in response to this letter will help determine the next steps in this investigation," he added.
Cummings noted that Trump administration officials had previously said that senior White House officials did not use multiple email accounts. And he reminded the White House about the grilling Clinton received from congressional Republicans over her email practices.
Lowell said Kushner's emails usually involved news articles and political commentary. Lowell also said any nonpersonal emails were forwarded to Kushner's official account and that "all have been preserved in any event."
Officials are supposed to use government emails for their official duties so their conversations are available to the public and those conducting oversight. But it is not illegal for White House officials to use private email accounts as long as they forward work-related messages to their work accounts so the emails can be preserved.
Clinton stored classified information on a private server, and she exclusively used a private account for her government work, sending or receiving tens of thousands of emails.
Sanders would not say whether the White House would release Kushner's private emails that dealt with government business.
In addition to Kushner, Bannon and Priebus, Ivanka Trump -- the president's elder daughter, who is married to Kushner -- used a private account when she acted as an unpaid adviser in the first months of the administration, Newsweek reported.
Current and former administration officials acknowledged that she also occasionally did so when she formally became a White House adviser. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with reporters.
Other advisers, including Gary Cohn and Stephen Miller, sent or received at least a few emails on personal accounts, the officials said.
The acknowledgment of private email use came as the White House is responding to a wide-ranging Justice Department request for documents and emails as part of the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling. The use of private emails has the potential to complicate that effort, but White House officials said they were confident in the process.
"I am dealing with honorable professionals and getting what I need," said Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer leading the response to the investigation. "I am doing all I can to ensure the special counsel receives the materials they request."
Most of President Trump's aides used popular commercial email services like Gmail. Kushner created a domain, IJKFamily.com, in December to host his family's personal email. That domain was hosted by GoDaddy on a server in Arizona, records show.
Priebus and Bannon did not respond to messages seeking comment. A person close to Bannon insisted that he almost never used his private email for work purposes. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a question for comment about the current officials.
James Norton, a former senior homeland security official during the George W. Bush administration, said private accounts pose security risks -- a criticism often raised against Clinton.
"These private email accounts become targets of phishing attacks or other types of ways of collecting information," he said. "It's an issue not only for the person who owns that account, but the person who is receiving the emails. It is introducing risk into the system."
Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press and by Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times.
A Section on 09/27/2017